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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Idols vs Idvls 



OR 



ThE Philnsaphy of SuccBssful 



Politics, 



^>^s OF coa/; ■-. 



J AS. ARMSTRONG, JR. 



1)1 the present controversy hefwcru the United Slates and Er^j land concern- 
ing Venezuela )nany valuable hintx may bejound. Patriotism is the talismanic 
tvordvMh which ail conjure. On the merits of the x)olitical question, scarcely 
a regiment could be raised. It is not the boundary line between British 
Ouiana and Venezuela, for thousands^ tvho ivoidd go to war, do not know the 
countries are contiguous; nor is it the Monroe doctrine that stirs their valor, for 
there are daily papers that do not understand its scope; and as to Americans 
fighting for freedom^ s sake, the idea isdoo keenly humorous for serious con- 
sideration. It is by representing England as a robber nation that the American 
people may be urged to play Ulysses to her Polyphcme. The shades of Wash, 
ington and Jackson, and those of the hosts tvho fell the martryed heroes of 
liberty at Lexington and New Orleans, are evoyked in the enslaving awe of the 
ivitch scenes in Macbeth. Flag, country, national honor arid inttgrily are the 
magic words by which America may be arrayed against British arms, or 
enslaved by British gold. A real war with England is not a probability of the 
present time, since she could as well afford to bombard Liverpool as New York, 
but the reformer may find in the diplomacy of the present administration the 
means of practical j:)rocedure in th< rehabilitation of republican institutions. 



PRICE, 



TEN CENTS, 



fitH>T,;5itl %iiiiffk(ttnfri<ttfi!tr^ir<fii^^ f^rr^^it^ifW^llVlftht*^^ tWrttWfN..rf{ftfflt>wti^^ fthTHrt^<^w«rf^rf^^w^^^^rf h^lwrt^dW rt^^ 



dols 



vs. 



dvls 



OR 



ThE Philnsnphy of SucoESsful 

Pnlitics, 



JA8. ARMSTRONG, JR. 






HEMPSTEAD : 

HOUX & ARMSTRONG, PUBLISHERS. 
1896. 






Copyri^rhted 
Hy Jas. Armatroug, Jr, 
All rights reserved. 
1896. »s 



TO 

LOUIS A FREED, 

MY FRIEND, 

A MAN WITHOUT PREJUDICE AND WITHOUT 
pride; AND A F.RIEND IN THE 
MOST EXALTED SENSE 
OF THE WORD, 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS DEDICATED. 



TO THE READER: 



THERE are but two ways to be rid of the evils which threaten our 
exist(-nce as a republic — one of which is through the ballot, the 
other through civil war. Every one, except him who has gold for sale, 
is alarmedly aware of the necessity of immediate action if republican in- 
stitutions are to survive. And being a worshipper of Janus rather than 
of Mars I have undertaken, in the following pages, a logical considera- 
tion of the most available means of a peaceable solution of present 
national difficulties. 

Theoretically, nalion-building is an easy task. Truth finds ready ac- 
cess to every well-ordered mind. But truth is not always capable of 
practical results wben the means of its fulfillment consists wholly of an 
assumed constiincy of human effort. The tailor may cut a model gar- 
ment, sind yt^t. not, one man in a thousand could wear it. And those 
pl)ilo8i>pliers who offt^r mankind nn ideal social State, as a refuge from 
ihecalMtnities of existing ins'titutions, will fare even worse than the gar- 
ment-mnkt^r who would shape his wares according to the form of Apollo 
of Belvidere. The question that presents itself, therefore to the states- 
man, is of what may be, rather than of what cart be. And since the suc- 
cess of a cause cannot be predicted from the number of its professed 
adherents, he should be loth to engage in the promotion of Utopian 
schemes; hazarding as he does, thereby, in the event of failure, the deep- 
ening of ])opu.ar discontent, and h probable sequence of revolution. The 
hoj)e of plunder and tlie spirit of mercenary warfare would enlist those 
who sutler as ihey should fight, in common brotherhood, upon one side 
as often as justice and a sense of duty, upon the other. In the present 
crisis Force would be a most uncertain experiment. In its event, the 
Republic might become a second Rome, and a pri)longed era of civil 
darkness, wor^e than medieval night, follow an invasion of bar- 
barians. 

The safety of re|juolican institutions lies in peaceable procedure. And 
peaceable procedure means the ado[)tion of such issue, or issues, as will 
unite the anti- plutocracy element ms thoroughly as practicable. The 
writer, n»»twithstanding his ideas of civil government have been received 
from a scliool of socialism which liolds that money is a positive evil, re- 
eaidless of the quality quantity or kind, believes nevertheless \\\qX Fi- 
nance is the issue. No other issue, it seems to him, will enlist the sup- 
port oi the musses more efieciively, and he invites you to a careful jitrusal 
of ihe following pag<s "lor the laith that's in him." 



IDOLS vs. IDYLS. 



I 

f/J% O L T T I C S is the science by 
v;!^ which the affairs of men are 
Q^^* directed to their own good or 
evil through the instrumentality 
of their prejudices and passions. 
As a science it is exact, rather than 
speculative. Its fundamental ax- 
iom — men shape their purposes to 
the attainment of selfish ends — is 
a rule without an exception and of 
universal application. The Esqui- 
mau and Patagonian, the Ameri- 
can and Mongolian ditter as widely 
in manners, laws and customs as 
in geographical situation. But be- 
yond the accidents of environment 
the li..es of their dissimilarity con- 
verge into a homogeneous whole 
which we call humanity. 

Innumerable are the shrines at 
which men kneel, immortality is 
the dream of all. Multituduious 
are the pursuits of life, the dollar 
is their common goal. Countless 
are the social and civil institutions 
of mankind, happiness is the pur- 
suit of each and every one. 

Love, honor, pride, loyalty and 
l>atriotism aresim|)ly variations of 
the generic term, Egoism. Among 
the thfferent races of men it mani- 
fests itself according to their devel- 
opment. In the hands of the can- 
nibal it places a bludgeon; in the 
hands of the financier, a bond. 



The dusky daughter of the forest is 
won by the scalps that adorn her 
lover's belt; the pale-faced heiress 
of our eastern cities is enthralled 
by the titles with which her fortune 
hunter encumbers his name. 'Tis 
Hiawatha and her "brave," Consu- 
elo and her "duke." In decency 
the Savage takes precedence, but 
in principle they stand upon an 
equal footing. John the Baptist 
lost his head through the vanity 
of Herodias; the American people 
are suffering the evils of a second 
administration of her lord, urged 
into it as it is said of him by Mrs. 
Cleveland. 

Throughout the range of 
human action, crime and virtue 
own a common origin From Abel's 
murder to the latest bond sale, 
from Nero to Cleveland, Irom those 
who pray facewards Mecca to those 
whose eyes are turned to Buzzard's 
Bay, from those who bow to sticks 
and stones to those who worship 
the -'Cold Reserve;" trom the Ash- 
antee warrior to the modern demo- 
crat, from Judas and Ananias to 
Sherman and Carlisle— the inspira- 
tion of all human effort, whether 
ble>siiig the world with liberty and 
love, or filling it with tyranny and 
crime, was born of the instinctive 
self concern by which all men are 
directed regardless of the capacity 
in which they act. 

In obedience to the canons of 
self-interest all progress lias been 
made. This fact is particularly 
exemplied in the lives of success- 
ful politicians. No {)ublic enter- 



— 4 — 

pripe nor private scheme can be the unaided means of prayer and 
achieved on the vicarious plan, self-denial, it became at last a new 
The most notable instance of tlie paganism. "Patron saints assumed 
trialof such a plan is the moststrik- the offices of household gods. St. 
ing example of iis failure. For George took the place of Mars. vSt. 
notwithstanding Christ died to save Elmo consoled the mariner for the 
the world, no one need go to loss of Castor and Pollux The 
heaven early to avoid the rush, virgin mother and Cecilia succeed- 
There will be crowns and robes of ed Venus and the Muses. The 
just his size, and untouched harps lascination of sex and loveliness 
as numerous as the mistakes of was joined to that of celestial dig- 
the democratic party. Millions of nity; and the homageof chivalry was 
men have lived and died since the blended with that of religion.'' 
scene at Calvary who never heard Reformation is not a jtendulum 
of Christ, nor the divine mdecen- striking the hoursofgreatei- human 
cies of SamuelJones. And if Jesus happiness with unfailing regularity, 
had played Jones to the Roman It is rather an avalanciie, growing 
rabble, built an orphan asylum, gradually in ])onderou8 proportion 
donned the toga viriiis and gone until no longer capable of abiding 
about the country assailing the in its resting place it rushes pre- 
short comings of the multitude in cipitately downwards, crushing 
the language of the tavern and every thing which stands against its 
brothel int^tead of preaching to progress Mankind cannot suddenly 
them the unheeded doctrines of be brought wholly to rid itself of 
non-resistance and the utter disre- any evil by which it i-: even know- 
gard of worldly goods, be might ingly afflieted. Built therefore as 
have now and then bt en greeted they are upon the prejudices of 
with a shower of ovariiiii antiqui- (;ountless generation^* — -"ixty centu- 
ties, but he would have escajjed ries of law and custom interposing 
the bloody sweat in the gaidtn of pres« nt tyninny and future justi(te 
Gethsemane, the crown of thorns — the retormation of existing insti- 
and crucifixion. Civilization nn'ght tulions is to be accomplished by 
have been spared a thousand years strategy ratlier than by science, 
ot the cruelest su})erstilion, during Not strategy in the sense by which 
which time tlie inhuman spirit of is measit the game that cunning 
monastieisui filled the earth with tricksters play for stolen gain, i>ut 
darkness and death in the attempt- stratepy in the sense of generalship 
ed realization ol theological absurd- that has given to the romance of 
ities. And had Christianity not llie world, which we call history, 
departed Ironi the unintelligible its iiemes. 'J'he greatest victoiies 
sophistries which were so Iruitful ol war are not those wherein su})e- 
of heresy and crime during the early .lior numbers award a triunjph. 
centuries of its existence, 'he gales Commanded l>y genius and disci- 
ofhell would have long since jire- plined by valor — three hundred will 
vailed ngainst it. Arraying itself Jeave posterity the memery of a 
at first in the garb of the most ans- Thernio{)ylae. And the suhslan- 
tere sim|»licit3\ visiting an unnat- tial victories of peace are no more 
ural hatred",.U]»on every object ol the result of sheer force than are 
national and popular estetni, de- those of war. Whtnever Justice 
spising the material objects of jietitions Might it is well if she may 
veneration of the old paganism and .successfully appeal to arms; but 
seeking to establish itself through her greater glory is to do 



— 5 



through peace, that which through 
force, must end in failure. And 
civil liberty is beholden more to 
peace than force for the progress it 
has made. 

The rise of existing institutions, 
like the beginning of geological eras 
cannot be traced to any particular 
period of time. Their origin is lost 
in the shadow of the ages gone. We 
are born under an established and 
ever-changing order of things. In 
youth the voice of enthusiasm in- 
spires us to undertake the realiza- 
tion of its exalted ideal. Enrapt- 
tured of the true a Rienzi strikes for 
freedom, and tyranny the object of 
his glorious but over-reaching zeal, 
laughs to see it find a victim in 
himself. A Bruno, whose soul is 
warmed by every impulse, pure and 
good, would quench inquisitorial 
fires with the tears of love and free 
tlom. In the end he finds that 
they are vain to stay the flame that 
feeds upon himself. Mankind 
neither demands nor appreciates the 
martyr. Self-sacrifice is a tribute 
to be paid to the gods alone. For 
heroes, such as Winkleried, the 
poor honors of martyrdom are 
theirs — a monument and pilgrim, 
now and then — the centuries come 
and g<\ and tyranny and priest- 
craft hold their own. 

Not so firmly as of old 'tis true. 
The fagot and the rack have been 
laid aside. Men are freer now to 
speak their thoughts; to pray to 
what they please. But we have re- 
ceived the progress that has been 
made from Luthers and king Hen- 
ries, men who made Truth the vas- 
sal of Ambition and enfeoffed Just- 
ice to policies tempered by the 
times, rather than to those exalted 
and more admirable zealots who 
would strike no league with error, 
nor temporize with ignoble aims 
that they might embody somewhat 
tKeir dreams of civil and religious 
liberty. 



The lamp within the visionary's 
cell is a star indeed, but it twinkles 
in a constellation of which the mul- 
titude knows nothing. The most 
of men, and the politician is inter- 
ested in majorities, have little time 
or understanding for social castle- 
builders. "The bookish theoric" 
soon exhausts their patience. They 
are not seeking deliverance from 
Egyptian bondage so much as en- 
trance into a land flowing with 
milk and honey. They grow im- 
patient of the Wilderness that lies 
between the domains of slavery 
and freedom. Present hungc 
makes them lament the fleshpots 
of their masters. The golden calf 
is set up again, and such is the pop- 
ular perversity at time's that the 
Moses of Freedom's chosen people 
is permitted only to contemplate 
her fruitful realm from the heights 
of some adjacent Nebo. Modern 
partizans are not unlike the ancient 
Jews, And when the reformer re- 
calls the lact that Jehovah himself 
could scarcely divorce the latter 
from their idols, it should some- 
what cool his ardor as an image- 
breaker among the former. The 
crowd still demands something 
which its pride and prejudice may 
catch and emulate; for heaven itself 
were unattractive to some, unless 
the melody of golden harps and 
choiring cherubim would now and 
then give way for a discourse on 
pensions or the "robber tariff." 
And the statesman who neglects 
such things as bon fires, parades 
and such poetic commonplace as 
"Your altars and your sires," 
"God and your native land" will 
scarcely "live, good easy man, to 
see his honors blushing thick upon 
him," 

II 

The Romans understood the 
crowd and tyrannized it thoroughly. 
Panem et circenses — bread and 



— 6 — 

games! Marc Antony knew its dis- did courts, graced by beauty and 
position; and he reminded it, not adorned with minstrefsy and music; 
80 much of Ceasar's wounds as of gay processions led by clarion notes 
Ceasar's -willX and waving miles of silken gonfal- 

Wherein hath Ceasar thus deserved ons — the lists of war, the knightly 
your loves? tournament and everv badge and 

Alas! you knmc not. I must tell you gjgn .,1 chivalric display-diSmond 
To every Roman citizen hegiv^s; crowns, swinging gardens and lux- 
To every several nian^jeventy five urious retreats — and at last sar- 
drachinas. cophagi of gold and marble! 'Tis 

Brutus would have given free- thus Plutocracy may lead millions 
dom; and for his pains was chased of ragged starvelings fettered with 
from Rome to meet a self-inflicted the gilded chains of greed in tri- 
death at Phillippi. The "noblest umphs more imperial than those of 
Roman of them all" is a type of Rome hersell! The philosopher 
many modern reformers who get may contemn the things of royal 
the applause but not the vote of the pride and civic gh)ry, but as long as 
great American citizen. They mis- its wages are "uncut," the multi- 
lake the clamors of discontent for tude will not only excuse, but will 
the cries for reform. They look boast uf the vanity of its Ivrants, 
upon every labor organization a^j a and like beggars at a feast will wel- 
Jacobin club, seemingly forgetlul of come the crunibs of extravagant 
the fact that its chief business is t lie displav, feeling honored to be as- 
creation of a relief fund for the im- sembled at su(;h a brilliant scene 
pecunious, sick and dead of the The reformer should take his 
brotherhood; an annual parade, a cue from the plutocrat, 
studious avoidance of politics and Human nature can be led to di- 
the inauguration of a strike when rcctlv opposite ends without a 
starvation i** the only alternative, change of means. 
It is forgotten that a dog fight will The Cross and Crescent came in- 
blockade the street, and the mere to conflict from the same motives, 
announcement of a prize-fight ex- and in pursuit of the same objects; 
cliide every thing else from the the hope of paradise, and temporal 
daily press, divide a state into supremacy. Ilouris made the Mus. 
warring factions and at last cause sulman disaster-fearless; saints in_ 
the legislature to be convened in spired the Christian with the mar-' 
extra session! Fame and fortune tyr's fortitude. The Civil war was 
attend the pugilist while the poet fought by both parties upon consti- 
starves in obscurity. Brawn plays tutional grounds — by one to save 
to crowded houses while Brain the Union; by the other, to hold 
greets empty benches. The reform- the Slave. Tyrants have been re- 
er is too frequently unmindful of moved with daggers; Pisistratus 
the truth of such trite observations, used them on himself to become a 
He seems indifferent to the fact that tyrant. Thedifference between the 
men are most easily taught the demagogue and statesman is in 
right or wrong through object les- practice and not in precept. The 
sons. They want something to.bovv politicians ot the South have led 
to, some image to reverence, some her people repeatedly through di.-- 
7(/c7/ to worship. Costumes stiffen- aster and disgrace by keeping con- 
ed with embroideries of gold, the stantly before their minds the pen- 
flowing plume and glittering epaul- sioncd federal soldier! In the 
ette; the iewelled insignia of si)Jen- North the bugbear has been the 



— 7 



demagogic fear of the Confederacy 
getting into the saddle again! Tex- 
as has politicians who have "cam- 
paigned" on a "Confederate rec- 
ord," and subsequently justified 
the invasion of a Sovereign State 
by federal troops to suppress a 
strike. It seemh indeed that the 
man who anathematized John 
Brown, would canonize John Alt- 
geld! But still he is not wholly in- 
consistent. Thirty five j'ears ago 
he was actuated by an idolatrous 
devotion lo a name; he defended an 
ancient institution — Slavery — sim- 
ply because it was ancient; his bat- 
tle cry was the sacred rights of 
piopertyl Time has not changed 
his motives. Another ancient in- 
stitution — Property — is being at- 
tacked today. He bows to the 
same idol that has a missing feat- 
ure, here and there, perhaps, 
broken from it by the iconoclasts 
of ihe past, but its votary is none 
the less devout. 

And man will continue to worship 
the great and old. His own life 
but a fleeting moment within the 
immensity of time, and dwelling 
upoii a globe with countless others 
sown interminably deep within the 
fields of space, every object that 
suggests the Infinite enthralls the 
imagination and makes the will a 
slave. On earth the mountain, cat- 
aract and ocean move him to rev- 
erent meditatian; in space, the 
unending flight ot planets, stars 
and suns. Every majestic object 
of the universe has been wor- 
shipped as a god. And "in the 
starry shade of dim an solitary love- 
liness" Art was born. Then came 
the dream of immortality, and 
every hope through which man has 
sought to soften down the desola- 
tion of the grave. In the contem- 
plation of Nature man realized his 
imperfection, and as soon as archi- 
tecture and sculpture taught him 
to embody his ideas, his creations 



found a prototype within the 
objects of his idolatry, and the ideal 
excellencies with which he clothed 
the beings who he supposed presi- 
ed over the universe. 

Many centuries have flown since 
men became the makers of temples 
and statuary; but posterity has not 
outgrown the superstitious predi- 
lections of the most primeval an- 
cestry. Cathedrals and palaces, 
imposing monuments and every 
extravagance of architecure awaken 
national pride, and become the 
means of national development or 
degradation according to the char- 
character of the statesmanship by 
which they are promoted.' The 
stately piles of Greece, the Acrop- 
olis and Pantheon charm the 
stranger to their classic clime. An- 
cient splendors covered by the 
shifting sands of a score of centu- 
ries make us forget the inhumani- 
ties with which they were contem- 
porary. The crumbling Coliseum 
wherein the fashion, wealth and 
tyranny of Rome amused itself 
with gladiatorial exhibitions 
is something more than the 
relic of civic butchery In the pres- 
ence of that colossal fragment of 
antiquity, we recall the poet's lines: 

The gladiator's bloody circus stands, 
A noble wreck in ruinous perfection, 
While Ceasar's chambers and the 

Augustan halls 
Grovel on earth iu indistinct decay: 
Aud t'lou didst shia^-, thou roiliug 

moon upon 
All this, and cast a wide and teuder 

lijrht 
Which softened down the hoar aus- 
terity 
Ofrujrged desolation, and filled up, 
As 'twere anew, theg'aps of centuries. 
Leaving that b autiful which still 

was so, 
Aud makinof that which was not till 

the plai-e 
Became Religion, and the heart ran 

o'er 
With silent wo7'.s/iip of the great and 

old! 



— 8 



III 

The Ancient h&s a\ways received 
the especial sanction of mankind. 
Immemorial custom gives the Law 
its prestige; and Religion has been 
chiefly propagated by the fact, that 
a// men at a// times have wor- 
shipped something. The savage 
and the civilized tread religious- 
ly in the footsteps of their "dad- 
dies." Philosophy has often 
plucked the heart of savage super- 
stition from the body of our most 
cherished institutions. But, still, 
the village church bell, that has 
for so many generations pealed the 
golden chimes of joy, and tolled the 
solemn monotones of grief, calls its 
wonted multitudes to prayer. 

Think of a people that places it- 
self in the foremost rank of progress, 
and builds its civil and religious 
institutions out of the fragments of 
barbaric codes and customs which 
have escaped the ruin of time. 
Contemplate the navies of the 
world; put afloat for the most part 
by nations that profess to love their 
neighbors as themselves. Recall 
the fact that chattel slavery 
is scarcely cold within its 
grave — hear the march of soldiery 
to murder striking labor — think of 
the womanhood sacrificed to lu-<t — 
hear the cries of famished babes, 
whose voices should be melodies of 
love and peace and joy — look upon 
the agony of toiling manhood, fight- 
ing greed for bread — behold the 
bleeding hearts ofmillions, crushed 
within them by the tyranny of 
wealth, the ^loloch whom all 
worship — see the many homes in 
which famine has hushed with woe 
and want the happy voices that 
make of home an image of the par- 
adise of which we dream! Why 
are men, women and children thus 
crucified wheu they are able to re- 
sist their executioners? It is be- 



cause custom has made them 
cowards. The Ancient binds them 
to an Ixion wheel; chains them 
to the Caucasus of greed, to be fed 
upon by the vulture of Capital. 

The Ancient is indeed an enchant- 
ing spirit which centuries of civili- 
zation shall fail to exorcise. For 
regarding immortality as the great- 
est good, the individual cannot but 
bend the knee to that which speaks 
to him of a'consummate boon. The 
ideal ofideals is life forever. And 
where the mould and ivy reign 
through ages of undisputed usurpa- 
tion, it is the genius t)f the place, 
and every fragment of each tallen 
column arch and coll«nade is a 
thrice-hallowed shrine at which 
some pilgrim worships. Antiquity 
is a temple, vast as the sky's illim- 
itable expanse, and every thing 
within its immemorial precincts 
receives the homageof mankind. 

Tradition has an oracle in every 
land, and prejudice is its interpre- 
ter Innovation is a missionary, 
carrying the gospels of Doubt. In- 
vestigati<m. Logic and Science, 
evangelizing in the name of Truth. 
Occasionally it has a cult; but on 
the whole, the canons of its disci- 
pline are framed in the spirit of 
such austerity that the majority of 
men have scarcely the courage to 
contemplate, let alone embrace 
them. Eor the presence of Truth 
is a kind of "Beatific Vision," cap- 
able of enjoymentby its elect alone. 
To the crowd it must come veiled 
Mokana-like. It can tal^e no part 
in the affairs of men unless tricked 
out in the fantasticgarb of custom. 
And thus has progress always been 
the masquerade of Truih, upon 
whose assumed eccentric antics the 
populace attended, believing it but 
swelled an itinerary of its own fool- 
ish predilections, and was thereby 
led to its own salvation. In the 
underestimation of this fact the re- 
former will meet defeat. The rep- 



— 9 — 



resentative of a class, respectable 
as select, he has undertaken the 
regeneration of the body politic. 
His schemes for the improvement 
of society have all the encourage- 
ment of historic truth and philo- 
sophic demonstration. The entire 
fifid of exact and speculative 
knowledge has been laid under con- 
tribution for the verification of his 
doctrines. His ideas find expres- 
sion in radical social theories that 
appeal to the public with the per- 
suasive graces of eloquence, rheto- 
ric and sound reasoning. Occa- 
sionally a theory is crystallized into 
a "colony" — a working model for a 
greater social structure. Bellamy 
has seen several formed to the 
honor of his name. Proudhon, he 
who would die a warrior, if he could 
not live a laborer, has a following in 
the United States — disciples of the 
greatest sociologist of modern times, 
who have sealed conviction with 
their blood. Industrialism, Co- 
operatism and Anarchy have found 
devotion in thefiower of American 
manhood. And yet monuments 
in Waldheim cemeteries will con- 
tinue indefinitely to mark the 
height of their acliievements. Not 
because their tenets lack the cohes- 
ive force of logical and historic 
demonstration. Aristotle himself 
could not find a syllogistic flaw in 
the m^jor and minor from which 
Proudhon drew the conclusion that 
Property is robbery . Tlie learning 
of Gibbon were unequal to the least 
disfiaragement of Bellamy's arraign 
inent of the present social syt-tera. 
Neither could the Athenians si- 
lence the impietyof Socrates with 
reason — they found a successful 
substitute in poison! The religion 
of his countrymen has disappeared 
fro-n amongst the affairs of men. 
It did not meet its fate, however, 
at the hands of science It was ab- 
sorbed bv a subsequent supersti- 
tion, and lost its prestige and iden- 



tity upon becoming the basis of 
Catholocism. Its disintegration 
came about almost imperceptibly, 
and through the process by which 
Christianity engrafted itself upon 
the prejudices of men for its own 
advancement. 

Christianity flourished in obedi- 
ence to the principles through the 
operation of which she usurped the 
throne of her predecessor. Polythe- 
ism. Adhering strictly to the rigid 
Essenism of its founder, the cardi- 
nal virtues of which werenonresist- 
ance and the contempt of property, 
it would have shared the fate of the 
many heresies to which it has given 
occasion. But the Christian relig- 
ion appealed to the sentiment, 
rather than to judgment of men. 
'•It was before deity embodied in a 
human form, walking among men 
partaking of their infirmities, lean- 
ing on their bosoms, weeping o'er 
their graves, slumbering in the 
manger, bleeding on the cross, that 
the prejudices of the Synagogue, 
the doubts of the Academy, the 
pride of the Portico, the tasces of 
the Lictors and the swords ot the 
thirty legions were humbled in 
the dust." 

And in our own times Christian- 
ity owes less to the subtleties of 
trinitarian orthodoxy, than to the 
emotionalism of the camp-meeting 
revival; less to patristic learning, 
than to parepatetic I'tquacity. The 
tortures of the damned and the joys 
of the elect, showers of brimstone 
and molten lead, and rivers of milk 
and honey are the solid founda- 
tion upon which it has built the 
structure of enduring dominion. 

The growth and permanency of 
religious systems conform to the 
invariable i)rinciples that assure 
the successful organization of every 
system which seeks greatness and 
dominion in the numbers it draws 
to its standard. In the hands of 
those who lead, logic and learning 



10 — 



do not rank as means of the first 
importance; since logic and learn- 
ing did not win their spurs in fields 
where human interests were most 
concerned. History chronicles no 
war, not even a fisticufif as to the 
distance of the stars. Geologists 
may read different stories from the 
records of the rocks, but we have 
yet to hear of the settlement of 
their contentions according to the 
London prize ring. Iluinbolt and 
Muller would never come to blows. 
Theories, geocentric and heliooen- 
tric; whether the oak is endogenous 
or exogenous; whether music is 
cosmic or sentimental; whether 
Homer was born at Chios, or Shak- 
spere wrote Hamlet; whether eleec- 
tricity is static or dynamic, or both: 
such questions will nf^ver cause the 
bombardment of a Fort Sum|)ter, 
nor the surrender of an Appomat- 
ox. They may be determined by 
the simplest rules of evidence. 
No human interests are vitally 
concerned. 

But whether this is a piece of the 
true cross; whether Kansas should 
be slave or free; whether Cuba 
should be recognized; whether the 
Monroe doctrine is a fact or a fancy; 
the United States should adopt 
a standaad of gold or silver, or 
both: such questions are not to be 
disposed of so readily. Logic and 
learning, though as easy of applica- 
tion to these as toother questions, 
are with the savants and asses sent 
to the rear. Philosophers give wny 
to partizans; the sword displaces 
the syllogism. The fanaticism of 
the crowd, like that of the "devout 
worshipper of genius, is proof 
against all evidence and all argu- 
ment. The character of its /do/ \s 
a matter of faith; and the province 
of faith is not to be invaded by 
reason. The most decisive proofs 
are rejected; the plainest rules of 
morality are explained away; ex- 
tensive and important portions of 



history are completely distorted." 
The reformer must then, like 
Valentine when fallen by the out- 
laws, content himself to be its gen- 
eral;— 

To make a virtue of necessity — 
that he may wield it to his pur- 
poses. The unyielding determina- 
tion^ of those choice spirits who 
bring the zeal of martyrdom to the 
promotion of truth is as unavailing 
as admirable. They are not unlike 
those ancient philosophers ot whom 
Macauley said: "They promised 
what was impracticable; they de- 
spised what was })racticable; th»y 
filled the world with long words 
and long beard-; and they left it as 
wicked and as ignorant as they 
found it." The masses — whose 
condition the} would make better; 
U})on whose lives they would let 
fall in unabating glory, the light 
of Justice— persist in speaking ot 
them with the epithets of vision- 
ary and fjinatic; and they have yet to 
extend beyond the numbt^rs of a 
most respectable minority the at- 
temped realization of the least Uto- 
pian of their dreams. 

IV 

And yet I would not exile the 
mind forever from the confines of 
Utopia. I would place no lUuning 
sword at the entrance to it«j delight- 
ful scenes. It were well if those 
who labor amongst the thorn-J and 
stubble of the political field would 
ever and anon direct the eye to the 
rippling streaujs, fruitful grovt-s 
andsofr retreats of an irleal rt-alm. 
The /dy/s of 'I'heocritus, the Ec- 
logues of Virgil, the Atlantis of 
Plato and the Utopia ot More are 
worthy the stJidious attention of 
everyone who aspires to make th«; 
world better for his having lived in 
it. But in the pursuitof the ideal, 
the real is not to be altogether neg- 
lected; and in the Minerva of 



— 11 



Phidias, the Tub of Diogenes, 
the Iliad of Homer and the Prince 
of Macchiavel the reformer may 
learn lessons of invalueable service 
in ihe promotion of his plans. 

The Dreamer has done an im- 
mense work in the civilization of 
mt-n. He has been the power be- 
hind the throne. He leads the 
leaders of the people. He is the 
play-wright; the politicians are the 
actors, and he stands in the same 
relation to them as Shakspere to 
Booth and Barret. The people are 
i\\^ ga/loy gods viho hiss the vil- 
lain and applaud the hero to an 
echo! The dramatist cannot act 
liis plays, nor can the dreamer re- 
alize his visions. McCulloch could 
not have written Julius Cc^sar, any 
more than Washington, Ihe Rights 
^ of Man. There have been thous- 
■^ ands of actors since 1564; there has 
been but one Hamlet The poet 
generalizes, the actor particularizes. 
The unities, machinery and crypto- 
grams(?) are as unnecessary to the 
one, as the make-ups, costumes and 
properties are useless to the other. 
The dreamer conceives, the poli- 
tician executes. In the s litude of 
the closet, with none to jeer and 
none to pr;iise, the one may give 
himself up wholly to the contem- 
plation ot the truth; amidst the 
the huzzas of the hustings, with 
[.assion eager to applaud a..d pre- 
judice ready to assail, the other 
must, like the Parthian sohiier. 
fight the false while seemingly in 
flight before it. He must impart to 
his words the stealthy caution of 
conspiritors. And the visionary is 
devoid of caution. With truth up- 
on his lips, and infinite kindness in 
heart he tells the suffering sons of 
men, love ye ofic another; and at last 
Irom out the same heart, racked to 
the extremest agony, there comes, 
Father^ forgive them for they kno-^v 
not xv/iat they do ! 

In the mathematics of civilization 



Power and Policy are the comple- 
ment and supplement of the angle 
formed by the meeting of the lines 
of Truth and Humanity. Not 
power in the sense of sheer force, 
for such power is useless except for 
the purposes of mere destruction. 
It is a Pretorian guard that knocks 
an empire down to the highest bid- 
der It is like the electric current 
that runs riot through the atmos- 
phere, blasting every thing with 
which it comes in contact. And 
continuing the simile, I mean pow- 
er as exemplified in the electrical 
mechanics that may move the com- 
merce of the world. The genius of 
the politician alone raay attain it. 
It is he who may harness the mul- 
titude to the car of progress, or to 
the Juggernaut of its own destruc- 
tion. Without it the idealities of 
the dreamer are mere pictures; as 
beautiful as those of Raphael; to 
the connoiseur a miracle of art, to 
the the crowd less interesting than 
a daub. 

The power of which I speak is 
many-phased. To achieve it. is 
ultimate of liuman motive. The 
means of its achievment is ever con- 
sonant to race ideals. When man 
first arose from a solitary to a social 
life, bodily strength and natural 
prowress satisfied his vanity. Her- 
cules WHS the impersonation of a 
race ideal. Mankind progressed. 
Its ideal changed. To worship ft>rm 
and strength was to match the in- 
telligence of man with the instinct 
of the beast. Muscle losi its vota- 
ries, the savage passed; the necro- 
mancer rose, the knee was bent to 
power still, but clubs and arrows 
were fashioned into idols. The re- 
peaters of insane mummeries were 
the receptacles of power. Fetish- 
ism passed. Sii'ks and stones 
were substituted by the goldan 
calf. High priests wore the er- 
mine. Obedience to the annointed 
of the Lord was the "delegated 



— 12 — 



voice of God." Violence fell into 
further disrepute. But the weak 
were none the less ruthlessly plun- 
dered by a subtler force — rapine re- 
fined — the mastery of their hopes 
and fears. The peace and joys of 
ea'-th were bartered for elysian 
dreams. Levites and Incas en- 
joyed the fullness of the earth. Re- 
ligion became the subterfuge of 
greed. 

Civilization broadened. Theoc- 
racy was relegaied to the refuse 
of the race. Egypt and 

Judea passed away. Athens and 
Rome arose. Springing from a com- 
mon stock, and co-operating as 
brothers, the founders of the ancient 
democracies enjoyed prosperity and 
freedom. The body politic so grew 
in health and strength, that to be 
a Roman was greater than a king. 
The Tarquins were expelled ; and 
the avenues to individual ascend- 
ancy seemed forever closed. 

Men learned the lust of conquest. 
The martial and the honorable 
joined hands. The streets and 
house tops were thronged to 
see the conquering hero 
come! The champions ot their 
country received the plaudits 
of a nation. Adulation and luxury 
were promised to the votaries of 
war. The heroes of battle were 
banqueted and triumphed. Col- 
umns and arches were built to their 
glory. Deceased and even living, 
they were exalted to the dignity of 
godship. The control of a great 
and growing empir*' necessitated a 
standing army. It became the 
the tool of power. Pretorian 
guards cast their fortunes with lead- 
ers most generous of donatives. Re- 
publics contracted into monarchies, 
monarchies into despotisms. It 
was thus the deified Augustus 
changed the mild government of 
the ^cipios into the fearful tyranny 
of Tiberius and Caracalla, Occas- 
ionally there was an attempted re- 



turn to former simplicity; but the 
"greediness which riches intro- 
duced for gain'' was far too great 
for the philosophy of Aurelius, or 
the virtues of the Antonines, to 
stay the empire against disintegra- 
tion. 

Out of the ruins of Rome was 
reared the fabric of modern civili- 
zation. "The most civilized na- 
tions of modern Europe issued from 
the woods of Germany." The Ro- 
man character and nation had sunk 
to the greatest degradation. "Un- 
der the influence of governments at 
once dependent and tyrannical, 
which purchased, by cringing to 
their enemies, the power of tramp- 
ling on their subjects, the Romans 
sunk into the lowest state of effem- 
inacy and debasement. Falsehood, 
cowardice, sloth, conscious and un- 
repining degradation, formed the 
national character." That charac- 
ter was created by the power of 
tyranny — through centuries of 
sheer force — it was destroyed by a 
similar power. But besides the 
characteristics of relentless barbar- 
ity, the followers of such grim- 
visaged chieftains as Odoacer and 
Attila possessed frthers which 
"could not exist among the slug- 
gish and heartless slaves who 
cringed around the thrones of Ho- 
norius and Augustulu-^. The war- 
riors of the north, brought with 
them, from their forests and marsh- 
es, those qualities without wliich 
humanity is a weaknes-s and know- 
ledge a curse, — energy —indepen- 
dence — the dread of shame — the 
contempt of danger. It would be 
most inter-sting to examine the 
manner in which the admixture of 
the savage conqueror and the afl^m- 
inate slaves, alter man v generations 
of darkness and atritation, produced 
the modern European character; — 
to trace back from the fir.^^t conflict 
to the final amalgamatiim, the op- 
eration of that mysterious alchemy, 



— m 



which, from hostile aud worthless 
elements, has extracted the pure 
gold of human nature — to analyze 
the mass, and to determine the 
proportion in which the ingredients 
are mingled." 



In that mysterious alchemy there 
was nothing intellectual. The gen- 
ius of the Roman law and the re- 
naisance of belles-lettres were not 
the crucible in which the magical 
metamorphosis took place. The 
ancient classics have not done 
as much for liberty as is gen- 
erally said. For it is strange that 
• classic literature and art should 
have been able to restore the shat- 
tered structures of civil liberty to 
the beauty of their original propor- 
tions, while they were powerless 
to prevent them from falling to de- 
cay in the beginning. It is a 
peculiar drug that will revive the 
dead, but not prevent the sick from 
dying. The virtues of Aladdin's 
lamp were absurdly inconsistent, 
if it could construct a palace in a 
night, and yet could not repair a 
barn within the same amount of 
time. In the time of Livy, the 
literature and art of Greece had not 
suffered the ravages of time and 
barbarian armies. The Alexan- 
drian library was not burnt, and 
the Parthenon was not yet dese- 
crated. Roman students went to 
Athens to complete their education. 
Augustus himself was scarcely re- 
turned from the Athenian schools 
when he succeeded to the fortunes 
of his uncle, Julius CcBsar. Liter- 
ature was most assiduously culti- 
vated, and Roman genius reached 
its zenith under the worst of Rom- 
an emperors. Nero was contem- 
porary with Seneca and Epictetus. 
And if liberty owed so little to art 
and letters while they still swayed 
the human mind with the undi- 



vided power of their pristine glory, 
how much less was liberty their 
debtor at a time when the sceptre 
was long-relinquished, and their 
former domain an ever-widening 
solitude? On the contrary, they 
retarded rather than advanced civ- 
ilization; for if we may believe the 
author of the Commentaries, the 
little learning which then existed 
was monopolized by the monkish 
clergy. The law of the church was 
modeled upon the civil law; and 
the prelates embraced with the ut- 
most ardor a method of judicial 
proceedings which banished the in- 
tervention of a jury(that bulwark 
of Gothic liberty)and placed the 
arbitrary power of decision in the 
breast of a single man. (Black, bk. 
3, par. 99.) 

Society was not regenerated by 
the genii of Wisdom. Learning to 
it was not as a Richelieu to France. 
It was through feudalism, born of 
piracy ; superstition born of fear; 
chivalry born of lust: and thro' all 
three, that were born of Egoism, 
that the prophecy which said- 
While stands the Coliseum, Rome 

shall stand; 
Wheu falls the Coliseurn, Rome shall 

fall; 
And when Rome (alls— the World.— 

was not fulfilled. The oath the 
warrior took, upon doing homage 
to his liege lord ; the prayer he 
breathed to the god of battle; the 
vow he made to his lady love — such 
were the things that made At- 
tila the scourge of God, Richard 
the Lion-hearted and Godfrey in- 
vincible. 

"In their baronial feuds and single 
fields 

What deeds of prowress unrecorded 
died! 

And love, which lent a blazon to their 
shiehls, 

With emblems well devised by amor- 
ous pride. 

Thro' all the mail of iron hearts would 
•rlide '' 



— 14 — 



It was the songs of the Trouba- 
dors, rather than the stately hex- 
ameters of Homer and Virgil; the 
glories of the Tournament, rather 
than the sophisms ofthe Stoic; the 
fanaticism of the Crusader, rather 
than the learning ofthe Civilian, 
that made it possible for humanity 
to emerge anew from ten centuries 
of crime and blood. 

The saviors ot society are loyal, 
rather than learned; and are gov- 
erned by prejudice, rather than 
guided by philosophy. Henry in 
the house of Burgesses, the mob at 
Boston Harbor and Lincoln at the 
field of Gettysburg are the dram- 
atic scenes that stir our natures to 
most perilous enterprises, or move 
them to a flood of tears. The mul- 
titudes which such scenes and men 
command are perfectly akin to the 
Royalists of a few centuries ago, of 
whom a great historian has said: 
"Our royalist countrymen were not 
heartless, dangling courtiers, bow 
ing at every step, and simpering 
at every word. They were not 
mere machines for destruction, 
dressed up in uniforms, caned into 
skill, intoxicated into valor, defend- 
ing with out love, destroying with- 
out hatred. There was freedom in 
their subserviency, a nobleness in 
their very degradation. The sen 
tiinent of individual independence 
was strong within them. Com- 
passion and ri)mantic honor, the 
prejudices of childhood, and th»^ 
venerable names of history threw 
over them a spell potent as that of 
Duessa; and, like the Red Cro-!s 
Knight, they thought they were do- 
ing battle for an injured beauty, 
while they defended a false and 
loathsome sorceress. In truth 
they scarcely entered into the mer- 
its of the political question It was 
not for a treacherous king or an m- 
tolerant church that they fought, 
but for the old banner which had 
waved in so many battles over the 



heads of their fathers^ and the al- 
tars at which they had received the 
hands of their brides." 

Would the North have thronged 
the lists of war as eap.erly a^ she 
did throng them; would the South 
have changed her fertile valleys 
into burial places; would the con- 
flict which begun at Harper's Ferry 
and ended at Appomatox have ever 
disgraced the chronicles of men, 
had those who bore the brunt of 
war, to be torn by shot and shell, 
and afterwards to expose their 
scars as mendicants for bread, 
known the motives by which that 
gigantic spectacle of civil butchery 
was staged? 

Old Glory was the emblem of de- 
votion on the one side, the Stars 
and Bars were objects of reverence 
on the other. The multitu'le on 
either side who had nothing to gain 
and their lives to lose, marched to 
battle to the martial strains of Dixie 
and Rally R )und the Flag, Boys! 
Those who were wiser, and n<>t to 
be humbugged by bomba-«t and 
music, passed twenty-nigger ex- 
emption laws, hired substitutes 
and remained at home. Then as 
now men went to war out of preju- 
dice and pride, and as the result of 
an appeal to force human liberty 
remained stationary. For war has 
done nothing for freedom. It did 
nothing for it in 1()B6, nothing in 
1776, nothing in 1815, nothing in 
1863. William fought for a crown, 
W'^ashington for represtntation, 
Wellington for England and Grant 
to save the Union. Had Harold 
won Hasting-!, the c>)ndition .if the 
masses could have been no worse 
than that of the followers of Jack 
Cade and "the mad preacher of 
Kent." Had Washintg >n lost, an 
English vice-roy could have donn 
no worse than send an army to put 
down a strike, and commit its lead- 
ers for contem[)t. Had Lee suc- 
ceed, the Negro would know today 



15 — 



where he would dine tomorrow, 
and while through his success 
chattel slavery might have at last 
embraced the poor -white trash, it 
could not have entailed more mis- 
ery and degradation upon the races 
than has industrial servitude, its 
successor. 

In the triumph of tyranny justice 
may find the means of its own pro- 
motion. In the present controversy 
between the United States and Eng- 
land concerning Venezuela many 
valuable hints may be found. Pa- 
triotism is the talismanic word with 
which all conjure. On the merits 
of the political question, scarcely a 
regiment could lie raised. It is not 
the boundary line between British 
Guiana and Venezuela, for thous- 
ands, who would go to war, do not 
know the countries are contiguous; 
nor is it the Monroe doctrine that 
stirs their valor, for there are daily 
[)a|iers that do not understand its 
scope; and as to Americans fighting 
for freedom's sake, the idea is too 
keenly humorous for serious con- 
sideration. It is by representing 
England as a robber nation that the 
American people may be uiged to 
play Ulysses to her Polypheme. 
The shades of Washington and 
Jackson, and thoseof the hosts who 
fell the martrycd heroes of liberty 
at Lexington and New Orleans, are 
evoked in the enslaving awe of the 
witch scenes in Macbeth. Flag, 
country , national fionor and integ- 
rity are the magic words by which 
America may be arrayed against 
British arms, or enslaved by Brit- 
ish gold. A real war with England 
is not a probability of the present 
time, since she could as well afford 
to bombard Liverpool as New York, 
but the reformer may find in the 
diplomacy of the present adminis- 
tration the means of practical pro- 
cedure in the rehabilitation of re- 
Dublican institutions. 



VI 

Political doctors, who have vol- 
unteered their services to our sick 
Republic, our ultra-reformers, are 
prescribing for a patient that throws 
away their physic. The least 
among them that sees that the 
diathesis of the sufferer is usurious 
— the more than Job-like sores of 
monopoly in all of its phases un- 
mistakably indicate that the life- 
current is poisoned with greed. 
Diagnosing thus correctly, the elec- 
tion of remedial agencies follows 
easily. It requires no lengthy con- 
sultation to agree upon a course of 
medicine more powerful even than 
that prescribed in the Omaha plat- 
form. 

Land, transportion and finance! 
Use and occupancy, the only title 
of possession; nationalization of the 
railways and manufacturies; and 
the demonetization of the precious 
metals, which are to be substituted 
by a system of fiat currency, "safe, 
sound and flexible!" Well may 
the assembled medico-political 
doctors exclaim ^z/r^-^a/ Yes, well 
they might, were not the adminis- 
tration of their proposed remedies 
contra -indicated by such minor 
national distempers as individual 
pride, arrogance and folly. 

There are thousands of petty 
landlords in the populist party who 
would abandon it at the first in- 
timation of the insecurity of their 
paltry acres. Admirably they stand 
against alien and syndicate owner- 
ship of "our native soil," for they 
may be swallowed up by them. 
Again there are thousands of popu- 
lists existing upon the "unearned 
increment" of either /iro/rV, interest 
or rent, (the trinity of evils that 
have at first afflicted and at last 
destroyed the social structures of 
every age) who would join the op- 
position instantaneously upon the 
earliest ?n?frpption that fithfr of 



16 



them should be condemntd. They 
favor fiatism, according to the the- 
ory that 10 increase the volume of 
money is to increase prices, and 
consequently to swell their reve- 
nue. 

As to the government ownership 
of railways, the institution of 
property is yet too much of a Holy 
of holies in the estimation of the 
masses for its accomplishment by 
the ballot. The fundamental right 
of property is adverse possessic/U 
at will against the world. It is a 
veritable rock of ages — the founda- 
tion of our laws and customs; re- 
move it, and the superstructure 
falls. The right of eminent do- 
main, alone, is superior to the right 
of property; and eminent domain 
is nothing more or less than confis- 
cation with indemnity. It is co- 
existent with properly itself. When 
the State undertakes to convey the 
property of A to B and others for 
the public good, it is policy for A 
to submit. Otherwise, he may 
make himself odious to the com- 
munity as opposed to its welfare. 
But when the State subsequently 
undertakes to reconvey the same 
property trom B to itself and for 
the same purpose — the public 
good — the process involves a con- 
tradiction, not in truth, bnt in the 
minds of both A and B, that pre- 
vents its immediate peaceable ac- 
complishment. A is no longer 
silenced by policy, and he joins B 
iu a demagogic uproar of centraliza- 
tion and paternalism. The dema- 
gogue has a most favorable vantage 
ground in the damnable abuses^ of 
federal patronage during recent 
administrations; and the effect 
upon the crowd of the specious ar- 
guments, afforded him by such 
national frauds as the ('redit Mo- 
bilier, Sugar trust investigations, 
Van Alen ambassadorships and 
income tax decisions, would l»e 
much like that of the stnge produc- 



tion of one of Haggard's weird ro- 
mances. The abuses which he 
would predict as attendant upon the 
nationalization of railways and 
kindred industries might be as 
wildly improbable as the fortunes 
of Ayesha, but still the dramatic 
effect of his presentation of them, to 
a people that has had cause for fre- 
quent real alarm at federal usurpa- 
tion, will make the delusion perfect; 
and the reformer would be as likely 
to dissipate the opposition thus 
aroused, dS he would to quiet the 
emotions of an audience by remind- 
ing it that Macbeth was fiction. 

The tears of misery must fall yet 
awhile upon the rock of property, 
which ha(? wrecked so many ships 
of state sailing upon the sea of civ- 
ilization. For notwithstanding it 
is regarded as a legal fiction by the 
greatestjurists, still Property would 
add nothing to the exclu.-^iveness 
with which it possesses the human 
mind, were it the most absolute of 
facts. "There is nothing." says 
Blackstone, bk.2, chap. 1. "which 
so generally strikes the imagina- 
tion^ and engages the affections ot 
mankind, as the right of property ; 
or that sole and despotic dominion 
which one man claims and exer- 
cises over the external things of the 
world, in total exclusion of any 
other individual in the universe 
And yet there are very few that 
will give themselves the trouble to 
consider the original and founda- 
tion of this right. Pleased as we 
are with the possession, we seem 
afraid to look back to the means by 
which it was acquired, as if tearful 
of some defect in our title; or at 
best we rest satisfied with the de- 
cision of the Jaws in our favor, with- 
out examining the reason or au- 
thority upon which those laws have 
been built. We think it enough 
if our title is derived by the grant 
of the former proprietor, by de- 
scent from our ancestors, or by the 



— 17 — 



last will and testament of the dy- 
ing owner;not caring to reflect that, 
accurately and strictly speakings 
there is no foundation in nature^ or 
in natziral laiv,rvhy a set of ivords 
upon parchment should convey the 
dominion of land; or why the occu- 
pier of a particular field or (the 
possessor) of a jewels when lying 
on his death bed, and no longer 
able to maintain possession, should 
be entitled to tell the rest of the 
world which of /'/^ew should enjoy 
it after /^ /;;//" (These are not the 
words of a Hay market rioter, but 
of Chief Justice Blackstone.) 

And men love dominion still too 
well to divest themselves even {mar- 
tially of the power through which 
they may oppress their fellows. 

In the ultimate analysis, there- 
fore, of existing social conditions, 
/ there is no opportunity for general 
and organic reform. It is a step, 
and not a leap that should be made. 
And if any reform is achieved at 
all, it will be through the adoption 
of such is-^ue or issues which, al- 
though wilhin themselves incapa- 
- ble of any thing more than an im- 
j)erfect restorationof our dilapidated 
institutions, will serve to mobilize 
the scattered hosts of poverty into 
an aggressive solidarity. Such an 
issue is presented in the Free Coin- 
age of Silver, at the titne-honorcd 
ratio of Sixteen to One. By this I 
do not mean to say that financial 
legisation will prove a second son 
of York and "make glorious sum- 
mer of this the winter of our discon- 
tent! With silver dollars as thick 
as summer leaves, and Penury 
within a million homes might pe- 
tition Plenty unavailingly. To use 
1 metaphor, I may illustrate my 
meaning by saying that the free 
coinage of silver is a sun glass by 
which the rays of disconterit, dissi- 
pated, as they are, throughout the 
political atmosphere, may be con- 
centrated upon a given object — 



Plutocracy. If the Omaha plat- 
form be likened to a wedge, silver 
is certainly its point of contact with 
the object to be rent asunder. 

VII 

^ It is foolish to expect a party tri- 
umph through the unaided force^of 
correct principles and sound ^reas- 
oning. The votaries of truth are 
much like those of Christianity. 
The ; churches are thronged with 
worshippers, and their daily lives 
are constantly giving the lie to 
their pretended piety. They wor- 
ship Christ Sunday, but are as loth 
to turn the other cheek on Monday 
as the most ungodly of their neigh- 
bors; and if we are to judge from 
the gold-grabbing t'Mdencies of 
christian nations, the eye of the 
scriptural needle must be as large 
as the entrance _to the^Mammoth 
Cave.: ■; .- t: ^'li-n::.. _., - i 

All men are the professed lovers 
of justice, yet behold'the^universal 
corruption of courts and legislatures. 
The most consummate scoundrel 
wears the livery of the honest man. 
The plutocrat has equality on his 
lips and slavery in his heart; and 
as the villian calls him brother, 
whom he would stab, the plutocrat 
addresses those as freemen, whom 
he would enslave.'" Dishonesty Js 
ever an aspiring Gloster to the 
throne of goodness. 
Alas XV hy should you heap these 

^ cares on me? 
I am unfit for state and majesty ; 
I do beseech you take it 7iot a?niss ; 
I cannot nor I tvill not yield to you . 

To be right, therefore, is but one 
of the preliminary steps to success. 
It is not the all-important step; for, 
were it so, the Hunchback would 
have gone uucrowned, and the Chi- 
cago platform would not have been 
written. If truth were the lode star 
of human effort no slave-ship would 
have landed at Plymouth, nor would 



18 — 



Shylock rule the world. Millun 
would not have died in poverty, 
the memory of Paine wtiuld not 
have been aspersed and the gospel 
of Christ would have long since em- 
braced the world. Through the 
force of truth, Nero, Maxiniin and 
Caracalla; Charles V., the Borgias 
and Catherine de Medici, and 
Sherman, Carlisle and Cleveland 
would not have been elevated from 
the sphere of private life. 

The history of civilization is filled 
with the failure of polities of the 
purest beneficence for the advance- 
ment of mankind. And as in the 
life of every individual, there is a 
grave} ard called the past, in which 
are buried ennobling hopes and 
generous endeavors -children be- 
loved and mourned oftlie heart and 
brain — so is there in the career of 
of every civil system a burial ground 
wherein liberty, anotfier Niobe, 
doth m<nirn her many children 
prematurely fallen. 

It is not enough, therefore, that 
the principles upon which it is pro- 
posed to build a better soj^ial sys- 
tem be grounded upon Liberty^ 
fraternity and Equality. For 
with nothing more than the imma- 
terial force of phil()£0[)hic truth to 
carry conviction to the minds of 
men, you shall have occasion to con- 
gratulate yourself for being right, 
oftener than president. "Every 
political sect must have its esoteric 
and its exoteric school, its abstract 
doctrmes for the initiated, its visi- 
ble symbols, its imposing forms, its 
mythological fables lor the vulgar. 
It assists the devotion of those who 
are unable to raise themselves to 
the contemplation of pure truth by 
all the devices of Pagan and Papal 
superstition. It has its altars and 
its deified heroes, its relics and pil- 
gi images, its canonized martyrs and 
confessors, its festivals and legend- 
ary miracles. * * ^- It may be 
added that, as in religion, so in j)ol- 



itics, few even of those who are en- 
lightened enough to comprehend 
the meaning latent under the em- 
blems of their faith can resist the 
contagion of the poj)ulHr supersti- 
tion. Often, when they flatter them- 
selves that they are merelv feign- 
ing a compliance with the preju- 
dices of the vulgar, they are them- 
selves under the influence of those 
very prejudices. It probably vvas 
not altogether on grounds of exped- 
iency that Socrates taught his fol- 
lowers to honor the gods whom the 
State honored, and bequeathed a 
cock to Ksculapius with his dying 
breath. So there is often a portion 
-of willing credulity and enthusiasm 
in the^ veneration which the most 
discerning men pay to their politi- 
cal iiiols. * * * Logicians may 
reason al)0ut abstractions, but the 
masses of men nuist have images. 
The phihjsopher may admire a no- 
ble conception, but the crowd turns 
away in disgust from words which 
present no image to their minds. 
Doctrines must be embodied t)efore 
they excite a strong public feeling " 

And with what success could you 
embody the doctrines of free land, 
government ownership of railways 
and the demonetization of the {)re- 
cious metals? What prejudices can 
be enlisted to their support? Per- 
haps you say such motives are un- 
worthy a great political i)arty. 
Yours is, then, a fragile craft upon 
the current of the world's events. 
You have not ''in imagination heard 
the shout that .shook the Colise- 
um's roofless walls," have not 
heard the cry of Allah il Allah at 
the sound of which the Crescent 
was borne into the jaws of death, 
not felt the shock of not and con- 
fusion promoted by nothing more 
than a tiadge of green or blue. 

In every department of life we 
are forever subject to a mysterious 
influence which we designate vari- 
ously as love, honor, loylaty and 



19 — 



pride ; but which is merely the un- 
conscious reverence we pay to that 
which time hath consecrated. A 
beggar will defend his country 
against the aspersions of a foreign- 
er. And even though the granar- 
ies of his native land burst with 
plenty, and his children starve; 
while on hinjself she may have un- 
justly placed the stigma of disgrace. 
And why? Does philosophy in- 
spire his anger? No, his anger is 
the voice of Egoism, born of racial 
and national pride, cultivated thro' 
out the ages. The beggar is a type 
of millions of our citizens. 

There are maimed and indigent 
soldiers in the South today, who 
never had a slave and have yet to 
Jearn why the civil war was waged, 
who take on an extasy of joy in lis- 
tening to the strains ot Dixie. And 
ihere are soldiers of the North be- 
tween whom and public charity 
is nothing more than a niggardly 
pension, the reward of fighting for 
a country that dt-preciated the mon- 
ey ol their wages to enrich those 
who stayed at home, whom the 
mention of Old Glory 'aW^ with an 
insane joy and sends the martial 
current ihro' their veins as madly 
as when they sung, " W'e are com- 
ing father Abraham three hundred 
thousand strong!" Each year sees 
a reunion, brought about by de- 
signing politicians and "smart" 
business men. Patriotism is made 
a stalking horse for the farce com- 
edy o( demagogues who have an 
itch for place, and the miscellane- 
ous mob of dollar-chasers that 
thrive upon the prejudices of men. 
And thus may thousands be drawn 
together to liear again recited the 
page of civil butchery, when scarce 
a score could be assembled as the 
champions of civil liberty! In 
memory of the heroes dead — hash- 
eries and lunch counters do a 
thriving business! 

It is useless for the reformer to 



chide at such conditions. They are 
essentially human ; and he must 
turn them to his own account. He 
must cater to the crowd, enter into 
its thoght and language and make its 
purposes seemingly his own. He 
must enlist its sympathies thro, its 
prejudices, and having won it to 
his cause, still play upon its pas- 
sions, hopes and fears. And this 
cannot be done thr(^' learned dis- 
courses on land monopoly and usu- 
vy . Political sciencev^iW bring on 
the millenium when physiology 
carries prohibition, or the rules of 
hygiene banish the cigarette-smok- 
er. De Quincey was an opium-eater 
Poe a drunkard and Breckinridge a 
,and we should not be sur- 
prised that Tom, Dick and Harry 
are democrats. Angels have been 
led astray by one no greater than 
themselves ; into what intermina- 
ble paths of error should we not ex- 
pect the average republican to be 
led, under the guidance of John 
Sherman? Surely you do not look 
for the man who is so stupid as to 
regard Cleveland as a public bene- 
factor, to avoid the mistakes which 
genius has made — nor expect the 
poor being who carries a torch in a 
'•republican" parade, to rank with 
the angels intellectually? 

Modern partizans are very much 
like those ancient savages who 
thought that the sun or moon in 
eclipse was being devoured by some 
evil monster. And as the celestial 
luminary was slowly overshadowed 
they beat the tom-tom, shrieked, 
howled and prayed until the uion- 
ster had seemingly disgorged us 
prey. Worshipping the sun and 
ini^on; and ignorant of their relation 
to the system of which they were a 
part, the savage was consumed with 
tear whenever they departed from 
the even tenor of their way. And 
Copernicus could not have reas- 
sured him. DemocraiS and repub- 
licans are accustomed to a few and 



— 20 — 



well-defined objects in the political 
sky. Tariff, pensions and spoils 
are the luminaries of their idolatry. 
As long as they shine bright, all is 
well. But just as soon as some un- 
familiar object gets between them 
and either of their tdo/s, heW itself 
never heard such an uproar of riot- 
ous confusion as attends the inci- 
dent! And, like Columbus who 
made the Indians administer to his 
needs by explaining an eclipse as 
the Great Spirit hiding his lace in 
anger at their mistreatment of the 
Spaniards, the reformer must make 
prevailing political superstitions 
serve his purposes, or perish in a 
wilderness of greed, the victim of 
worse than aboriginal atrocity. 

VIII 

The necessity for a single issue 
in the achievement of great results 
IS the lesson of history. Skip-moncy 
raised Oliver Cromwell to the Pro- 
torate of England, the Sale of In- 
dulgences was the occasion of the 
Reformation, Representation was 
the demand of 1776, Bread the cry 
of 1789. France was the secret of 
Napoleon's success. State sover- 
eignty brought on the Civil war, 
and in our own times we have seen 
the uninterrupted triumph of the 
democratic and republican parties, 
triumphs perfectly inexplicable ex- 
cept by the demagogic issues of the 
Robber tarijf and Pensions. 

The principal difficulties in the 
selection of a single issue seem to 
arise out of a probable capture of 
public offices. On the other hand 
there are those who think that the 
adoption of a single issue would 
smack too much of greed for spoils. 
To those who incline to this cpin- 
ion, I would as-k: Suppose the pnr- 
ty "standing squarely upon the 
Omaha Platform" were elected, 
what considerable portion of it (lo 
you expect to see put into effective 
operation, antagonizing as it does 



our laws, manners and institutions? 
"The land is the heritage of all the 
people." What will that declara- 
tion amount to with who votes for 
the Omaha platform, unless Jafter 
the election, he may call for his leg- 
acy, left to him by an intestate an- 
cestry? I know that lam entitled 
to as much of the earth's surface as 
any of my fellow men — I know 
that no man has a right to levy trib- 
ute of me for living upon a planet 
the fruits of which he enjoys freely 
and at my expense. Put I also 
know that such wrongs as the land- 
less suffer cannot be alleviated 
at once. 

The freedom of the land, the pri- 
vate ownership of which is among 
the most vicious errors of every so- 
cial system, cannot be brought in 
the near future. It is but thirty 
vears since we were rid of chattel 
slavery. Justice is yet too young 
within the world to take such nipid 
strides. The crisis at present is a 
money crisis rather than a land 
crisis. What ^were a thousand 
acres of our richest soil to you, to- 
day, with the money of the country 
locked up in the banks of the East? 
A thousand doll -rs were a boon, in- 
deed! The most of our citizens 
need dollars instead of acres. It is 
within the power of any party to 
give them the former, but as yet in 
the power of none to give them the 
latter. 

It may be contended that such 
interpretation ot the land plank is 
not warranted by the letter ot the 
platform. It maybe said that it is 
chiefly directed against alien and 
syndicate ownership. As for my 
part, I have no choice of robbers. 
I had as soon pay tribute for the 
privilege of living to a citizen of 
England as to a citizen of Texas — 
had as soon be plundered by a com- 
mon highwayman, as by the demi- 
goil, Hercules. Neither am 1 in- 
terested in the number of those 



21 



who rob iwe. It is no worse than 
rt)bbery whether coinmitied hy one 
or a ihou-aiui; and il' the Gouhls 
change iheir residence to escape 
taxation, they may do likewise to 
escape confiscation. The hiDtUord 
is fur the most part the m- st rapac- 
ious of the liunian species. The 
hist(My ut'his depredations in every 
country that lie tias blighted with 
his presence has pages oi cruelty 
iriore hai baric than those of Tamt^-- 
huie or Genghis Khan. Persian sa- 
traps in their wihJrst dreams of 
l)lood are mild humanitarians com- 
()ared to that [»etty tyrant who 
niur(]ers in tlie iiame of peace, and 
plundeis in I he name of law! No, 
the land plank means nothing; un- 
less it means the emanci [nation of 
the tenant. In that sense it is just 
anii philoso{>hic, but perfectly im- 
practicable as a political issue; as 
'iiuch so as the demonetization of 
silver would have l)een in 1872, or 
liie gold standard in 1892. Yet sil- 
ver was demonetize<l, and a huiid- 
rt d millions of gold-bearing bonds 
will soon be on the market. The 
moral of the story lies on the sur- 
face. 

A "campaign" against property, 
at the present time, would be much 
like that ot Geology against Gen- 
esis. No one who has intelligence ' 
enough to "scratch" the democi'at- 
ic ticket believes that the majestic 
universe was made in less lime 
than it takes for the uterine devel- 
opment of speckled pup, or a high- 
tariff republican. But, if the teach- 
ings of Moses and Ilumbolt were 
lett to a popular vote, with iSaui 
Jones and all of Billingsgate as an 
executive committee, Moses would 
receive the usual"l)rutal democrat- 
ic majority." Not because a ma- 
j»)rity believe the folk-lore of a 
semi-savage people, but because 
they are perjured by policy and 
custom. Some one has said that a 
little learning made men turn athe- 



ists, but that a (lepth of learning 
restored them to religion. With a 
little learning you see the absurdi- 
ties of religious institutions, and 
the hypocrisy of their supporters; 
and you assail them hoth, as if you 
would destroy them for the evil that 
they do. With a depth of learning 
you realize the I opelessness of suc- 
cessfully antagonizing an institution 
that has become a maison de foi 
tor piety and depravity. In poli- 
tics a little learning makes men an- 
archists and millenium-dreamers; 
they see the gigantic cruelty ofcom- 
petitve life; the unscrupulous knav- 
ery of the professed delV-nders of 
liberty; aiid they lead the Ibrlorn. 
hope of dynamiting tyranny from 
the homes of men. A de[)lh of 
learning — knowledge of the princi- 
ples of human nature, thro' which 
'•in all ages the people have hon- 
ored those who dishonored them — 
who have worshipped their destroy- 
er.-; have canonizeri the most gi- 
gantic liars, and buried the greatest 
thieves in marble and gold!" — re- 
turns them, apparently at least, to 
the conventionalities (;f their times, 
aiid from the vantage ground which 
they afford, fight freedom's fiattleS 
wilh success enough to dictate the 
terms of honorable capitulation, if 
not to enjoy the advantages of tri- 
umphant victory. 

The world is no better than it is 
because its conflicts have been pro- 
moted and cariied on by extreme 
fanaticism (Ui the one side, and con- 
summate knavery on the other. 
Mediocrity is best, says a wise man, 
and the liege-men of Liberty have 
always met defeat because they 
have never struck the happy me- 
dium. Instead of a homepaih, the 
Reformer has been an eclectic in 
politics. He has too often neglect- 
ed the practical for the philosophic 
side of statesmanship. He forgets 
that the successful politician must 
be an actor — a matchless imper_ 



— 22 



senator. lago anci Othello. Rich- 
ard and Richnnond, Miranda and 
Caliban, Ciesar and Cassius must 
be equally within his dramatic 
scope. He must assay the ores of 
intellectual mines, to separate 
the ignoble from the purer metaly, 
as often as o find an alchemy with 
which to turn the worthless into 
coin as current as the gold. He 
must be a skilled historian, and 
yet the prince of novelists — a pro- 
found philosopher and a drivelling 
sophist. He must walk with Pla- 
to and Socrates that with Phidippi- 
des he may confound their wisdom 
He must be familiar with the pol- 
itical economists, with the techni- 
calities of the law that he may still 
retain the confidence of New York 
bankers and impose upon his Ken- 
tuckian constituency with the cas- 
uistry of a charlatan. He needs 
the mildness of Francis of Assissi 
and the fierceness of Ignatius Loy- 
ol 1 — the piety of La Trappe and 
the irreverence of Voltaire— the 
garrulity of Talmage and the elo- 
quence of Ingersoll. 

The politician must be versatile 
toconiute and confirm, and to trace 
to the same source the ruin or re- 
naissance of empire. When prof- 
itable to him, in captivating color 
he may paint the labors of an out- 
cast; and softening the ignorant and 
fanatic inio the character of the rus- 
tic, show how an illiterate hermit 
roused Europe to crusades, and 
from the beneficial results of the 
holy wars waged for centuries by the 
Christian with the Saracen pay a 
tribute to the lowly and uncouth. 
Or, he may tell how the ignorance 
of a religious recluse inundat- d a 
world with blood— how he changed 
the camp of Christ into the field of 
Mars — how a pious maniac sent the 
liower of Europe's soldiery to in- 
hospitable shores and against super- 
ior numbers, to contend for an 
emty grave, — depopulating and lay- 



ing waste the happiest seats of 
tlie western;^yorld! 

In fine the polilician(that suc- 
ceeds) is an epitome of human na- 
ture—the centre and circumference 
of the goodness snd the meanness 
of mankind -a marvelous many- 
side man — both Brutus and Ctesar, 
both Cataline and Curlius, both Ar- 
nold and Washinslon — a being of 
infinite contradictions, yet one and 
the same, Luciler in heaven and 
Satan in hell! 

Whether for good or evil the pol- 
itician is a necessity. Without hina 
there could have been no progress, 
since the numerous parties into 
which ttie people are divided have 
not arisen out of a love of libert}', 
nor out of confiictingi opinions on 
matters of abst ract [)olitical science. 
Mill, Adam Smith and even the 
great Jiff'erson, by whose name so 
many swear, are sealed books to the 
crowd that howls itself hoarse in 
mechanical ajtplause of the gang 
that has done nothing during the 
last thirty years, exee|)t pension 
rich widows, give "swell" recep- 
tions, fight the War again and issue 
bonds! The popular vote has gone 
to the elevation of a popular idol, 
and like all idolatry the ol'j<;ct of 
popular veneration has been ari im- 
potent Iflish, adorned with the cap 
and bells of partisan malice and sec- 
tional hatred. But still the poli- 
tician serves a purpose. Civiliza- 
tion is a succession of experiments, 
and since an experiment is the trial 
of ignorance, more often than the 
test of knowledge, the politician is 
a necessity because thro' him alone 
Can the experiment be made. He 
objectifies popular tolly, and in- 
structs the people, although with- 
out intention on liis part, iii the 
school which a proverb has men- 
tioned as alone capable of the in- 
struction of a class that will learn 
in no other. Thus railway com- 
missions will at last bring the peo- 



— 23 — 



pie to government ownership, and 
bond issues will teach them that 
a nation' like an individual, cannot 
get out of debt by going further into 
debt. No nation of modern times 
has demanded corrective or pro- 
gressive legislation from dispassion- 
ate and philosophic motivas. Mal- 
feasance and misadministration of 
public I ffairs must be telt in all of 
the calamities ol individual pover- 
ty and national disaster before the 
body politic manifests discontent. 
History impresses us with no fact 
so forcibly as that popular discon- 
tent never showsitself amongst any 
people, until their property is at- 
tacked or th^ir lives are endangered 
Hunger lays siege to countless 
homes before a great party is born. 
And if it fulfills its mission, it is 
by tbe creation of issues which in 
themselves amount to nothing. 
The conditions among which pol- 
itical reform is to be wrought out 
are many and difficult. Success 
will not come t«' those who attend 
merely to truth — to that which out 
ot the consideration of pure justice 
should take place. If it would — 
if men needed only to have the 
truth stated to them to embrace it, 
there were no need fur political 
conventions and political j)arties. 
Advanced to that degree of intel- 
lectual developement the human 
species would be ready for the 
golden era of no government at all! 
Such an era is lost in the intermi- 
nably outstretching ages of the 
future. VVe have to do with the 
present, and the most we Ci»n say 
of it is that it is alarmingly filled 
with suicide, ins-anity and crime. 
We are living in a time of cold- 
blooded calculation — an age in 
which greed runs riot through the 
veins of the body politic in streams 
of fire. Inevitable idleness is a 
crime, and men who kneel at t\\e 
same shrine and profess tlie perfect 
doctrine of brotherly love will 



shadow each other to the dungeon 
and the grave for a paltry fee. Im- 
mense wealth on one hand has 
made the classes drunk with ty- 
ranny, immense poverty on the 
other, has made the masses mad 
with misery. You look in vain for 
the splendid image of the young 
republic. Our cities have become 
the crime-centers of the land, and 
their moral leprosy has touched the 
ermine of our judiciary. We have 
seen the federal soldiery at the 
command of a tyrannical executive 
marshalled against the "inalienable 
rights of man;" and at the hands 
of the same power we have seen 
the government itself prostituted 
to the money brokers of the world. 
Such evils the people bear with 
patience. A few 3'ear8 ago the 
people abandoned the republican 
party; a few weeks ago, its policies 
and purposes still unchanged, they 
again took up its standard. By 
each party they are struck like curs 
that sends them hovvlng to the other 
to be struck again; and thus they 
shift from party to party the fools 
of circumstance and the dupes of 
gold. 

And reader, looking calmly upon 
the present situation, do you be- 
lieve relief can come to the rest- 
less, discontented multitudes thro' 
the advocacy of principles, whose 
scope is as Utopian, as they are 
just, harmonious and beautiful? 
Do you believe that tlie time is ripe 
for their realization to be atteuipted? 
Must we not out of necessity win 
through peace, if we win at all? 
And are free-land, government 
ownership of railways, and fiat 
money the vantage ground from 
which we are to achieve so great a 
victory? Do not deceive your- 
self vvi h the glittering unrealities 
of sentimental optimism. Grapple 
with conditions as the are, and put 
away that spirit of foolhardy en- 
terprise that had rather meat de- 



— '24 - 

feat than to blot out a single feat- ers wide" between the present and 
lire ot an uto])ian dream. This is the future that the soul aspires to. 
not the time tor political castle- are unthought of, until the all- 
bnilding The ref<jrmer is yet a wearied jiilf^rim sinks upon the 
pioneer; and the forest must be burning sands, to ujingh- his ashes 
cleared away before a city can be with their own. 
reared. There is a fatal fascinii- Let us not give wny to ih** child- 
tion in the indulgence of those ish egotism th^it venis itelf in pet- 
"airy nothings," which come to ev- nhmt and unreasonable obstinacy 
ery one who contemplates the proh- when its whims arc disregardetl, or 
able success of a darling scheme, its caprices fiisappointed. Theen- 
The future stretches out before the emy is uot bt-fore us, and it. is rath- 
delighted imagination in a succes- er premature lo apportion his lands 
sion of ever-brightening vistas, and chattels when victory is, pt-r- 
And with the mind intt-ntly fixed haps, as certainly his as ours. 
upon the object of its desire, the 

difficulties of" achievement are lost Hempstead, Iexas, January, 
sight of. The -deserts vast and anlh- 15,1896. 



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